[cylcone1]

'96 Jetta 169,000 mi. Will not accelerate. Cannot get up hills or past 40mph unless I'm cruising on flat strip for a long time, then I can get up to 50. Otherwise, the more gas I give, the more it chugs and the slower it goes.

Brand new plug wires, fuel filter, & ignition coil. New plugs/cap/rotor past 6 months. Newer exhaust (cat. back), timing belt @ 155K mi. My colleagues say it's a plugged cat. but Midas says no (there would be codes and it would be glowing red-hot if it were plugged). Codes for mis-fire on 3 cyl's, possible PCV or MAF, but MAF looked good, air filter OK. Some oil in intake up to PCV but Autozone guy said a new PCV wouldn't help this prob. Could it be the cat. after all?